my first spring training.

bug splatter on the drive to phoenix.

woke up at 5am on saturday morning and departed for phoenix. we assumed there would be a one hour time difference, but apparently arizona doesn't have daylight savings time so we arrived earlier than expected.

we went straight to maryvale ballpark, where the brewers have their spring training. i brought along the chad billingsley signed ball i have and was also able to get james loney and chin-lung hu to sign it. i was bummed that russell martin and andre ethier wouldn't sign anything. clayton kershaw was the starting pitcher for the game, and the dodgers won! it was a lot of fun, and of course the arizona weather was perfect. highs in the low 80s.

despite being tired from our early start, we cruised around downtown phoenix for a bit. and went to conspire, a coffee shop / clothing, jewelry, art retail / anarchist library in this little artist's colony. it was awesome. the coffee was great, and all the stuff they sell in the store is handmade, mostly by artists who work the coffee counter. and the coffee was very good. phoenix has hipsters! who knew.

we dinnered at noca (see previous post), cruised around downtown scottsdale for a bit (there's a sprinkles cupcakes there!) and headed back to the hotel and crashed pretty early. we were staying at the clarendon in downtown phoenix where there wasn't much, but the hotel itself was very cool. and it was the most convenient location for us since it was between the ballparks and scottsdale.

we were going to go for a hike sunday morning, but were so tired from the day before that we ended up sleeping in. then dan had the brilliant idea of checking whether or not there was dunkin donuts in the area, and there WAS! oh my goodness, it was like i died and went to heaven. i haven't had a dunkin iced coffee in so long.. i can't wait to have another (we go back in late april)! then off to camelback ranch, the brand spanking new dodgers/white sox spring training facility. it's a really great little stadium, and i love the architectural details they used throughout. manny ramirez, casey blake and orlando hudson all started this game - though i wasn't able to get any signage - but manny only hit once and played for a very short few innings. and they even brought out hong-chih kuo to pitch for an inning.

we started the drive back to LA right after the game. we made it back to the san gabriel valley around 10p so stopped at indian beer house for some tasty taiwanese treats before driving the final thirty or so miles back to the west side. it was a perfect weekend, and so much fun!

photos from the trip can be found in my flickr photoset.